


Heartfelt Apology

by tocasia



Series: Our Shining Past [5]
Category: Final Fantasy VII
Genre: AU, Gen, Romance What Romance, Sephiroth and Zack friendship, Silly, fanmail
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 14:20:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11254707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tocasia/pseuds/tocasia
Summary: Sephiroth gets fanmail all the time.  Zack wants some of his own.  What happens when he gets a romantic invitation from Fan #1?(58. heartfelt apology) for Seph&Zack Friendship 100 Themes





	Heartfelt Apology

Zack strolled into Sephiroth's office to grab some forms from the copier because his own was out of order. It had printed only memes about chocobos for a week. He had an idea of who might be behind that. Sephiroth was at his desk scowling dangerously at the huge stack of envelopes in his inbox that he was obviously not looking forward to. There were scorch marks... on the ceiling. That was bad. It meant that Sephiroth might soon start using Masamune as a letter opener. The casualties would be....

"Uh, Seph? You alright?"

Zack prided himself on his courage. He fished one of the papers out of the smoldering trashcan and read it. To say he was surprised would be putting it lightly.

'Emerald orbs, flowing cascades of quicksilver', Zack turned the page over, 'I like leather too wink wink, die in your arms gladly, etc.' Zack did his absolute best not to laugh, "Seph, I thought you loved your fanmail. All this praise and devotion...."

"None of it is real," was Sephiroth's bitter reply.

"Man, I wish I got some of that stuff."

"Here, this one had some nice chocolate, you want that?"

"No thanks. I mean, it would be nice to get some fanmail of my own. I'm totally awesome too, you know?"

"I've never met any of these people or the person they address their letters to. They write them for themselves, not for me. Are you sure that's what you want?" Sephiroth swept the entire stack, chocolate and all, into the trashcan and incinerated it with a snap.

* * *

A week later, Zack found an envelope in his inbox that was not business-sized. It was smaller, like for a greeting card, and purple. Could it be? He opened it, careful not to tear the heart sticker on the back. He began to read.

Some of this was really... romantic. 'Lovely lavender, holiest of hedgehog hair, I want to use your sword as a surfboard and we can ride into the sunset.' The paper smelled like ladies' perfume. Her handwriting was divine. Or maybe she was a he. It was just perfume after all. That would be fine, too. There was also a note, printed on nice cardstock, with delicate golden foiling on the heading, which declared:

* * *

**Pack Your Bags**

_Darling,_

_I'm taking you away for an evening of deep delight._

_Pack your bags, my love._

 

 **Date:** ooh, it's tonight!

 **Meet Me At:** 'the place with the most oxygen'

 **Be Ready to Leave At:** 6 o'clock

 

_I'm not going to tell you anything about it._

_Just prepare to faint from pleasure._

* * *

Wow. Even if this didn't work out, he'd add that one to his repertoire.

This was the beginning of something good, Zack knew it. He would cultivate his fanclub and someday it might rival Sephiroth's. Well, in all honesty, probably not. But, hey, follow your dreams, right? He had to share this news.

"Hey Seph! I got one too! Looks like I've got it made, my own fanclub begins!"

"Congratulations, Zack. Now get out of my office."

* * *

As 6 o'clock approached, Zack made sure he looked a little neater than usual. Gotta make a good first impression on Fan #1.

_the place with the most oxygen_

Well, that would have to be on the roof. Did his fan like stargazing? It was a nice night for it; they'd be able to see more than three. He took the stairs to the top. The view was great; it was above the smog, and the lights in the street below would sparkle at night even if there weren't stars. Such a romantic spot. Zack sat down, dangling his legs over the edge fearlessly.

No one else was here. He waited. Maybe he was early? Nope, actually he was a little late, fashionably late. With a sigh, he leaned back, supporting himself with his arms behind him. He felt something smooth and dry under his right palm. A piece of paper. A note.

_through the window six stories down, east side_

Oh, so it would be a scavenger hunt then? That sounded fun. Sure enough, there was a trail of heart decals down the building. Either this person had connections in high places or was agile and strong enough to climb as well as he could. This was already a bit strange. He wouldn't take the elevator though. He would show them his courage! Yep, yet another evening scaling the Shinra building. Another floor to check off on the list of those he'd kicked in a window on.

Another note waited for him on the windowsill:

_follow the hallway straight ahead and unscrew the fifth fire sprinkler on the ceiling_

Hmm. Whoever wrote these was tall, or resourceful, or both. He'd never looked at those sprinklers before. Let's see, here's number five. He didn't even have to reach for it; it fell into his hand as soon as he walked underneath. Must be destiny. The carefully folded note inside told him to go to:

_the coldest room_

Maybe they meant the fridge in the fancy upper level cafeteria? It was probably okay to take the elevator this time. The cafeteria was closed, without explanation, so no one saw him jump over the counter and swing open the door to the kitchen. He'd guessed right! There was a note in the freezer, wrapped around one of those delicious bite-sized chocolate-covered icecream treats:

_colder than that, come melt my heart_

Zack ate the chocolate. It was _good._ Another cold place.... Did they mean the highly classified, incredibly locked server room on the executive floor? Only people who knew what they were doing were allowed in there. The more he thought about it, the more Zack wanted to meet this person. They certainly had access to some higher up levels of the building. Turk? SOLDIER? Janitor? Military secretary? Scientist? Scarlet? No, hopefully not Scarlet.

The half-frozen note sticking out discreetly beneath the server room door read:

_7th door on the left, knock once, and enter_

Zack counted the doors on the left side of the hallway. The seventh one had rose petals on the floor in front of it. They were the same color as his eyes. Wow. Zack knocked and got no response. Okay, well, he had followed the instructions, so he supposed he could go in now.

The door was locked.

Something occurred to Zack. This was the apartment that belonged to....

Damn. He wondered if he could have skipped some steps and come right here from 'the coldest room' hint. The door was still locked. Yep. Such an uncaring door, a perfect fit for the man who lived there. It was just like Sephiroth to get someone's hopes up and then crush them like he must've crushed that rose.

Unless... Seph was serious? As, uh, amazing as that would be... Zack didn't think so. He'd asked Sephiroth's opinion on romantic relations before. What did he like? The subject was always changed quickly. The General simply was not interested.

So this was about the insincerity of the fanmail. Well, that did make a pretty good point. But it sucked.

* * *

Zack walked into Sephiroth's office the next day with something to say.

"I understand what you were getting at, but did you have to do that?"

Sephiroth made to answer him, but Zack kept going. "You said that none of it was real. How do you _know_? Maybe your fans weren't considerate, and you probably think their praise isn't good enough for you, but I'm willing to bet they didn't write compliments just to piss you off!"

"Zack."

Had he crossed a line there? Fine! "Sir."

"I apologize."

"You what?" Sephiroth's rank meant he never had to apologize for _anything._ Which explained a lot.

"I convinced myself I had noble intentions at first. By showing you how it felt now, I thought I would be sparing you from years of disappointment. I was wrong. In my bitterness I took revenge against you for something that wasn't your fault. It was uncalled for. I'm sorry, Zack."

Zack had a revelation. "You don't trust in anyone's sincerity, do you?"

"No."

"What about mine?" Zack defiantly snatched the pen out of Sephiroth's hand and grabbed a sheet of paper from the printer. To prevent Sephiroth from reading it, he twisted around, held it up above his head, and started to write. The pen poked holes in the paper and because it was upside down, there wasn't very much ink. It looked awful, suggesting that the recipient was unworthy of effort and attention. That was not the message he wanted to send! So he put it back down on the desk and went over the lines of his words again, making them darker, more legible, neater. Sephiroth saw what he wrote:

* * *

**P** ack your bags, Seph.

I'm tak **i** ng you away for an evening o **f** 'whatever the hell you **w** ant to do.'

 

 **d** ate - today

 **b** e ready to leave at - **n** ow o'clock

 

I'm not going to **t** ell you anything about it,

be **c** ause as your **f** riend, I'm coming with you, w **h** erever you go.

* * *

"See? No false gilded sentiments there! Honest friendship, spoken plainly. This is real!"

It was clear that Sephiroth had not expected Zack's sudden kindness. Zack felt Sephiroth's intense scrutiny as he searched Zack's features for any trace of deceitful self-interest. When he found none, he accepted the note as if it were a precious thing, a delicate thing, a sacred blessing of forgiveness. Which it was. "Thank you, Zack. I don't deserve this."

"Maybe not. But I forgive you, this time. Now, where are we going?"

They made hot cocoa and took their bikes to a beach near Kalm. They watched the stars over the sea, just being there, talking, laughing, friends together.

* * *

Later, Sephiroth was surprised when he caught Zack looking at the stack of fanmail on his desk again. "Do you still want one? A fanclub?"

"Yeah. It'd be good for my ego to hear how awesome I am all the time."

Relieved that he hadn't accidentally killed Zack's optimism yet, he said, "You could come with me to the next photoshoot. The Shinra PR department would appreciate the chance to sell something else for a change. I could tell them, 'I've got a cute friend I want to bring.'"

"Oh baby!" Zack feigned a swoon.

Sephiroth rolled his eyes. "Just don't follow any anonymous notes again. Trust me."

"Can I hear that story?"

"No. But..."

"Yeah?"

"You are awesome, Zack."

 

**Author's Note:**

> The romantic invitation card (Pack Your Bags Darling) featured in this story exists in real life. I bought a small package of them at a garage sale for 50 cents. It was a good day.


End file.
